Civil War Study Guide 2017 Flashcards
What was the Missouri Compromise and when did it take place?
The Missouri compromise was a compromise in 820 that stated any land north of the Missouri Compromise Line was a free state. This line stretched from the Arkansas Territory to Tennessee. However, even though the state of Missouri was north of the line, it was a slave state.
What was Nat Turner’s Rebellion? When did it happen and what happened during the rebellion?
Nat Turner’s Rebellion was a slave rebellion in 1831 that lasted 36 hours in the state of Virginia. He started this rebellion because he claimed that God had chosen him to avenge the sins of slavery. During those 36 hours, Turner and his rebels killed any white man, woman, or child they saw. Eventually, the U.S. government sent 800 soldiers to deal with the rebels, and Turner was executed and skinned.
What was the Compromise of 1850?
The Compromise of 1850:
- California entered the Union as a free state
- Divided the rest of the Mexican Cession into the territories of New Mexico and Utah
- Made it so that in those territories people could vote through popular sovereignty on whether or not they wanted their state to be free or a slave state
- Ended the slave trade in Washington, D.C..
- Included the Fugitive Slave Law
- Settled a border dispute between Texas and New Mexico
What new state was admitted to the the Union in 1850?
California.
What was the Compromise of 1850?
The Compromise of 1850:
- California entered the Union as a free state
- Divided the rest of the Mexican Cession into the territories of New Mexico and Utah
- Made it so that in those territories people could vote through popular sovereignty on whether or not they wanted their state to be free or a slave state
- Ended the slave trade in Washington, D.C..
- Included the Fugitive Slave Law
- Settled a border dispute between Texas and New Mexico
What new state was admitted to the the Union in 1850?
California.
What was the Fugitive Slave Act? What did it do?
The Fugitive Slave Act required all U.S. citizens to help catch any runaway slaves. If they didn’t, they could be fined up to $1,000 and jailed. It also made it so that suspects were not allowed a jury trial.
The northerners found this new law hard to accept because most northerners opposed slavery. A lot of northerners would actually help runaway slaves escape to freedom (this act was the startup of people thinking slavery was a moral issue instead of a political issue).
What was “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”?
Uncle Tom’s Cabin was a bestselling book in 1852 because its purpose was to show how horrible slavery was. It was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. The book was popular in the north because of its antislavery ideas, but in the south people thought the book did not represent the true picture of slavery (This is partly true because Stowe never actually had any experience with slavery firsthand).
What did the Kansas-Nebraska Act do?
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854:
- Divided a huge chunk of the Louisiana Purchase into two parts: Kansas and Nebraska
- Also made it so that in these territories people could vote on slavery via popular sovereignty
What was “Bleeding Kansas”?
Bleeding Kansas was an event that took place in 1855 where Antislavery and Proslavery groups illegally crossed the border into Kansas to illegally vote on whether or not the new state should have slavery. These illegals were called Border Ruffians. Eventually, so many people voted illegally that the Proslavery movement decided that they had won and so they set up a Proslavery government in Kansas. Antislavery groups opposed this so they too elected a governor and set up a government. The state of Kansas now had two governments.
Bleeding Kansas happens when a band of Proslavery men raided the town of Lawrence (an antislavery town) and destroyed homes. John Brown, a radical abolitionist, rode with his four sons and a group of abolitionists rode into the town of Pottawatomie and murdered five Proslavery settlers. After that, both sides engaged in guerrilla warfare. This was “Bleeding Kansas”.
What was the Dred Scott Case? Did Scott win the case?
The Dred Scott case was a court case in 1857 which divided the North and the South. Scott was a slave who lived in Missouri (a slave state). Later, he moved with his owner to Illinois and then to the Wisconsin Territory (a free territory). After they returned to Missouri, Scott’s owner died. Abolitionist lawyers helped Scott file a lawsuit that argued that because he had lived in a free territory, he was a free man.
The Supreme Court decided that:
- Scott couldn’t file a lawsuit because he was enslaved, which meant that he wasn’t a citizen
- Congress didn’t have the power to outlaw slavery in any territory (meaning that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional)
What was the Republican Party and what did they want?
The Republican Party was a political party made up of Free-Soilers, Northern a Democrats, and antislavery Whigs. They formed the party in 1854. Some Republicans wanted to end slavery altogether, but most just wanted to stop the spread of slavery and keep it out of the western territories.
Who was John Brown, and what happened during/after his raid on Harper’s Ferry?
John Brown was a radical abolitionist. He planned to take a group of Americans, African Americans, and his sons to Harper’s Ferry and raid it. Harper’s Ferry was a federal arsenal, so they planned to take it over and provoke a slave uprising. Once they took it over, they quickly lost control of it and Brown was captured and executed.
Northerners considered Brown a hero or a martyr, but southerners were enraged that northerners would even support such a man.
What happened in the election of 1860? Who won?
Here are the candidates:
Stephen Douglas—Northern Democrats
John Bell—Constitutional Party
John Breckenridge—Southern Democrats
Abraham Lincoln—Republican
Abe Lincoln won the election by a landslide.
Why did the South secede? What states seceded?
The south seceded because when Lincoln won the election, the south finally had enough. They felt they had lost a voice in the national government and this was proof that northerners were trying to destroy their way of life.
Senator John Crittenden tried to save the union by introducing a bill that would extend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific. This bill failed, however, as slavery was no longer the issue.
States that seceded—
- South Carolina, 1860
- Alabama, 1861
- Florida, 1861
- Georgia, 1861
- Louisiana, 1861
- Mississippi, 1861
- Texas, 1861
These states formed the Confederate States of America. Jefferson Davis was their first president.
The states argued they could secede because the constitution says that, “It is the right of the people to alter or to abolish” a government that denies the rights of its citizens.
